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LAW 626

Legislative Simulation: The Federal Budget

Law School

Recommended for route(s):

[ Academia ] [ Regulatory & Policy ] Business Law: Art Law

Why it is relevant for ...

[ Academia ] [ Regulatory & Policy ] as a Related Elective for those interested in Political Process : Students who hope to understand policy-making or to influence the legislative process will benefit from this course, whatever substantive area of the law serves as your career objective. Class exercises simulate the legislative process, using the debate on carbon trading to illustrate how legislative coalitions are built and broken, how interest groups and lobbyists influence the process, and how an Administration tries to influence Congress. Taught by someone who was “in the trenches” in Washington, this course demonstrates the way formal rules and textbook theories play out in the real world.

General course
Description:

How does a bill really become a law? This course is about the formal and informal American legislative and budget process. The course is part lecture, part simulation. You will learn the formal processes that govern legislating and White House policymaking, including: how a President decides what policy to propose; Congressional committee markups; House and Senate floor debate, rules, and the amendment process; conference committees; and Presidential signatures and vetoes. You will then learn how legislative coalitions are built and broken, how and why bargaining occurs, the roles of interest groups and lobbyists, how an Executive Branch tries to influence Congress, how political parties and elections influence legislative behavior, and how the press and personalities influence all of the above. While this is primarily a class about policymaking process, we will learn enough about federal budget policy to make your participation in budget legislative simulations more effective. Can your class solve America's long-term budget problems when your counterparts in Washington have so far been ineffective at doing so?

Course Style: An Experiential course is one in which students undertake tasks derived from or akin to those done by practicing lawyers.